Prof. George Saitoti

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 251 to 260 of 271.

• 17 Jul 2007 in National Assembly: Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. As hon. Members are aware, the Government has decided to fast-track the implementation of the negotiations of the teachers' salary award of 1997. In this regard, the Ministry will be implementing the final phase of the agreement and has, therefore, factored in an amount of Kshs7.11 billion during this financial year for this purpose. Furthermore, the Ministry will recruit 11,000 teachers, out of which 7,000 will replace those teachers who exit service through natural attrition, while an additional 4,000 teachers are to boost the current teacher work force of 235,000. This additional teachers ... view
• 17 Jul 2007 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I shall respond accordingly when I respond to the Motion. view
• 10 Jul 2007 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to reply. (a) I am not aware that children with disabilities in special boarding schools are paying for their primary education. However, just as the case with regular boarding primary schools, they pay July 10, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2347 for their school uniform, school meals, transport, boarding facilities and health care. This is so because free primary education does not cater for these services, but only caters for books, tuition, staff wages, repairs and maintenance, quality assurance, electricity, water and postage. (b) There are 108 special public primary schools as shown in the attached list. ... view
• 10 Jul 2007 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, I do not have the information that parents of children with special needs are being charged Kshs17,000 for tuition. Tuition, books, teaching and learning materials are given free of charge by the Government. I will be quite happy to get information regarding those schools where these fees are being charged and I will take the appropriate action. Having said that, it is important to understand the assistance the Government is giving to special primary schools. First of all, the Government provides special schools in the country with grants-in-aid, to cater for their recurrent operations. About Kshs380 million ... view
• 10 Jul 2007 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, definitely, there is no argument about that at all. The Ministry is fairly committed to the fact that orphaned students with special needs, clearly get grants. view
• 10 Jul 2007 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, the free primary education definition is that the Government pays for all the books that are provided and other learning materials to the student. The Government also provides teaching materials that are used by the teachers to teach. At the same time the Government also pays for the maintenance and repairs of the schools through this account. It also pays for transport when students are travelling for sports and other extra-curricular activities. In the marginal areas, the Government also provides lunches through the National School-Feeding Programme. However, in the case of uniforms, I want to emphasise that ... view
• 10 Jul 2007 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to admit one thing; not all children with special disabilities are enroled in schools. One of the reasons for this has been the attitude of a number of parents who hide their children with disabilities to prevent them from being noticed. We have already carried out a thorough assessment of the children and a major survey all over the country to determine the number of children with special needs. We are moving very quickly to make sure that the children who have been hard to reach all go to school. view
• 10 Jul 2007 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am sure that you will sympathise with me because of the manner in which the hon. Member has put his question. I am not in any way out of touch with the situation on the ground. I am very much in touch with it. As a matter of fact, we look at all the schools wherever we are and we do inject the money. He has also said that some of these children are being neglected by their parents. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have got a team that is going all over the country to find ... view
• 10 May 2007 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to reply. The Ministry has no intention of restoring or reviving the Kenya School Equipment Scheme (KSES) because all primary schools in the country are currently receiving Free Primary Education (FPE) funds directly into their school accounts. These funds cater for the purchase of instructional materials which used to be procured and issued under the KSES. Free Primary Education funds also cater for other general purpose expenses in the schools and, therefore, more beneficial than the KSES. In the FPE, each enroled pupil is entitled to a sum of Kshs1,020 annually, out of which ... view
• 10 May 2007 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, appropriate guidelines have been provided to the schools as to the type of equipment that they should actually purchase. Those who do not purchase in accordance with those guidelines will have violated them and they will be caught by auditing. However, the Ministry does not consider it to be prudent to have one monopoly body, then direct the schools that they must go and purchase their needs in one monopoly shop. That will even become more expensive. view